Americans’ support for stricter gun laws grows

Americans increasingly favor tougher gun laws by margins that have grown wider after a steady drumbeat of shootings in recent months, but they also are pessimistic that change will happen anytime soon, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll.

Nearly two-thirds of respondents expressed support for stricter laws, with majorities favoring nationwide bans on the sale of semi-automatic assault weapons such as the AR-15 and on the sale of high-capacity magazines holding 10 or more bullets.

Kimberly Huebner, a high school special education teacher in New Braunfels, Texas, supports the Second Amendment but believes some restrictions should be imposed.
Associated Press/Eric Gay

The percentage of Americans who want such laws is the highest since the AP-GfK poll started asking the question in 2013, a survey taken about 10 months after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, that killed 20 children and six educators.

High-profile shootings also appear to have taken a toll on Americans’ sense of safety. Strong majorities of those polled expressed some degree of concern that they or a relative will be a victim of gun violence or a mass shooting.

“If you live in the United States in these days right now, you have to be concerned,” said Milonne Ambroise, a 63-year-old administrative assistant from Decatur, Georgia. “You could be on the street somewhere. You could be at a shopping mall thinking there will be a mass shooting and you will be in the middle of it. You can’t not think about it.”

Ambroise, a native of Haiti who moved to the U.S. nearly 50 years ago, said she is now much more alert and on guard whenever she is in public.

“I’m looking for exits. This isn’t something I did before,” she said. “What if I have to run? Where’s the exit? Where would I go?”

The level of concern about being victimized is not uniform, however. Nonwhites are significantly more likely to be very or extremely concerned.

Alonzo Lassiter, 66, of suburban St. Louis, worries that his autistic 17-year-old son could be the victim of gun violence, either by a robber or the police.

“If somebody told him to get on the ground and put his hands up – or told him to give up his headphones – he wouldn’t readily identify those instructions,” said Lassiter, who is black. “He may be an easy target.”

He said straw purchasers who buy and then resell guns to ineligible felons and teenagers have flooded some urban neighborhoods with firearms and need to be stopped.

The poll was conducted July 7 to July 11, shortly after a string of high-profile shootings. That included the Orlando nightclub massacre that left 50 dead, including the gunman, and 53 others wounded, and the fatal police shootings of black men in Minnesota and Louisiana. Most interviews took place after the sniper attack that killed five officers in Dallas.

A majority of respondents expressed a desire for a national approach to gun laws, rather than a patchwork of state laws or local regulations, even though Congress has thus far failed to act on many of the initiatives the poll showed Americans support. Yet less than half of respondents said they believe gun laws will indeed get tougher in the coming year.

By a 55 percent to 43 percent margin, respondents said laws that limit gun ownership do not infringe on the constitutional right to bear arms. But the responses also revealed a partisan divide: 87 percent of Democrats support stricter gun laws compared with 41 percent of Republicans.

Gender and geography are other dividing lines, the poll found. Women and those who live in cities and suburbs are more likely to support gun restrictions than men and those who live in rural areas.

Americans find common ground on other issues. Strong majorities of Democrats and Republicans said they support requiring background checks for people buying firearms at gun shows and through other private sales. They also back a ban on gun sales to people on the federal terrorism watch list even if they have not been convicted of a crime.

“Why should it only be the dealers that have to do the background checks? At gun shows, individual sellers should be required to do the background checks so they don’t end up selling them to the criminal element,” said John Wallace, a disabled Vietnam veteran and former gun dealer who lives in Limestone, Maine, and owns several guns.

Despite the support for tighter gun laws, majorities oppose banning handguns, imposing an Australia-style gun buyback program or making gun manufacturers or sellers liable if guns are later used in a crime.

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RockyGMarshall

Mob rule at its finest.
Funny how the only good mob is a lib/progressive mob.

That would take care of the killings in Chicago I calculate…….. How come the didn’t think of that. I am surprised they have had some of the most progressive municipal leaders in the country..

Nelson Donnell

What most of the news media has been proficient at avoiding reporting is the fact that the Orlando nightclub massacre that left 50 dead, including the gunman, occurred during the time the police ware storming the nightclub and that many of those who were injured or killed was done so by the police during their entry into the building.

JustKev

I hate polls. They just manipulate the numbers to make it sound better or worse than what ever they want you to believe.

Anthony Connolly

The fact that the poll described magazines holding more than 10 rounds as “high capacity” shows they have no clue what they’re talking about. And if they want to actually be remotely factual, they are called “semi-automatic sporting rifles”. Assault rifles are select-fire rifles that shoot semi-automatic AND full auto/burst, can accept a detachable magazine, and fires an intermediate cartridge. A semi-automatic rifle that has all of the above minus the fully automatic/burst capability is just a semi-automatic sporting rifle. Handgun violence puts violence from rifles to shame, but good luck banning those, as the Supreme Court and multiple federal courts have ruled time and time again that is unconstitutional.

In Massachusetts, the Attorney General made an unconstitutional decree that banned pretty much all semi-automatic sporting rifles from being bought and sold. From 2007-2014, Massachusetts had 7 rifle deaths according to the FBI. That includes bolt action hunting rifles. That is compared to 1,294 deaths from other weapons (from blunt objects to bladed weapons) in the same period.

Semi-automatic sporting rifles aren’t the problem, this is absolute fear mongering. Make sense?

sage1

Riiiiight, sure. What is the reason the people continue to purchase record numbers of firearms? Because they want to ban some? More new firearm owners than ever before, many of the new are women. More people filling up the firearm training courses. More folks obtaining conceal carry permits than ever before. Yeah, more gun control, sure. Just keep telling us that and some will believe it….right.

Pase’ Doble

Orlando was a terrorist attack. So was San Bernadino, Fort Hoodx2, Moore Ok, Queens, Garland, Chattanooga, etc.. We are at war, in case anyone forgot because the jihadists haven’t. In your desire to propagandize for gun-control you put people at risk. Even with terrorism you have a tiny chance of being killed with a firearm. Don’t commit suicide, don’t get involved in drugs, don’t belong to a gang, if you aren’t currently a felon or living in a high population urban zone you have a ,000000531 percent chance of being murdered with a firearm. Still waiting for the streets to have wild west shootouts because of the cc change. Stop the hyperbole. It’s embarrassing to think that this is the best a “journalist” can do.

Nina Sage

So, liberal women, who live in the cities, want more control over the rest of us.

White house

And they are going to do it without guns.

Pase’ Doble

Nope.

AKMaineIac

Only “poll” that matters is coming up in November. Be a silent majority in the country that’s getting impatient with this stupidity. They’ll be at that poll… send these fools walking.

anticon

your so called “silent majority” is neither silent nor a majority. They are the biggest whiners and as for majority,demographics are taking care of that. The polls regarding guns are not out of line. Dont cha hate it when democracy doesnt go the way ya want it to? I have guns but im not a nut about it. Only about 35-40% of americans own guns and the percentage of the population is getting smaller all the time. And the 2 amendment? What well regulated militia do you belong to?

AKMaineIac

The one referred to in every Federal case ever heard by the courts as the “unorganized militia”.

That one specifically excludes paid professional soldiers. You’d know that if you read up on this a little.

AKMaineIac

And this isn’t a Democracy either… geez you reasonable people are frigging ignorant.

anticon

its a democratic republic but laws do get voted on, Geez you right wingers are really ignorant.

AKMaineIac

However, “rights” do not… read up on the meaning of “shall not”. Get back to us.

anticon

however, amendments can be repealed and have . read a little history

AKMaineIac

Nothing in the bill of rights was created by, nor depends on, the constitution for its existence.

“This is not a right granted by the Constitution. Neither is it in any manner dependent upon that instrument for its existence”.[4]

United States v. Cruikshank, 92 U.S. 542 (1875)[1]

Done here.

anticon

glad you’re done here, now tell me how many rulings have been reversed

AKMaineIac

Demonstrating your lack of knowledge here a bit?

Research the “militia” and when you’re done you’ll know. Be better prepared for a debate next time. Don’t ask me to do your research for you. I have neither the time nor the inclination.

anticon

showing your ignorance a bit ? Im out sailing so i dont have time to try to educate you. Research the term “well regulated” and see what “well regulated” means. Id rather be sailing than trying to educate the low information/education tRumpsters

AKMaineIac

“Properly functioning” in the parlance of the times. Not floundering and capsizing under a mountain of laws intended to render it moot.

Are you considered a smart man?

anticon

are you considered a stupid man or just a gun fetishist ? Or just one who doesnt believe citizens have the right to make laws for their protection. Read ALL the constitution and bill of rights laddie, not just the 2nd amendment. You know, the part about petitioning the government about redress of grievances .

AKMaineIac

Think you’ll find, based on supreme court decisions and various state constitutions, I know a good deal more than you. Te ipsum.

anticon

i doubt it laddie, you havent shown it yet

mdenis46

People just can’t stand the idea that other people are fed up with the gun violence. Knee-jerk reactions on both sides of the gun debate, as usual. And someone, somewhere, will commit a mass killing again within a week. Oh, well. This is the “New Order” I guess.